I Hope This Doesn’t Find You

by Ann Liang

“I’ll have you know,” Julius begins, low and furious, “that I was not named after a Roman dictator.” I’m so disoriented, so shaken still, that I can only say: “You weren’t?” “Absolutely not.” “What . . . were you named after, then?” “A printing company,”

What?!🤣

“You know what I think?” he murmurs, drawing so close his mouth skims my ear, his cruel face blurring in my vision. My breath catches. Goose bumps rise over my bare skin. “I think you’re obsessed with me, Sadie Wen.”

I wish I wasn’t the kind of person who is always so sensitive to other people’s shifting moods and tones, who startles when someone raises their voice even a little, who cowers when someone else gets annoyed.

Yeah, me too..

warm water for me,

Who likes warm water???😭

“I really can’t stand it when people are angry at me. Like, I know it might be simple for others, but I can’t focus on anything else. I can’t just forget about it and go on with my own life. It’s like there’s something hard wedged inside my chest. I’ll always feel guilty. I’ll always want to make amends.”

Same!

“Because,” he says quietly, a curious expression on his face. I’ve never seen him so serious. So sincere. “You’re the only person worth paying attention to.”

EEEEEEEEE🤭

“What if you ran me over gently with a car?

Tbh i'd also rather be run over by a car then run a relay race

“I have a fear of running, you see.”

Hey, me too!

“Screw the others,” he says fiercely. The heat in his voice shocks me. Burns me to the core. “I don’t care about them. I only care about—” He cuts himself off.

🤭

“He kept looking over at you,” he says with a little grin. “At least thirty times. I counted.” “I didn’t know you could count that high,”

“I was genuinely attracted to a cartoon lion at thirteen.

Girl, that's fine. One of my hear me outs is a car (but cartoon lion's are attractive)

Because I’m willing to lose everything,” he says, his eyes blacker than the surrounding darkness, than the sky outside, “so long as I don’t lose you.”

“I do choose you.”

“Is this one of those jokes where you say you’re the surprise because your presence itself is a gift?”

For ten years I thought I was preparing to destroy you, when really I was preparing to love you.

You were right, Sadie Wen. I am completely, helplessly obsessed with you. Love, Julius